I don't think they ever said they'd go with SoaSE gameplay for whatever the next iteration is. They also seem to stick real well to their single player.

GalCiv is GalCiv and Sins is Sins. I have no clue where some people get the idea that we've any intention of combining them in any way.

Well, Sins wasn't developed by Stardock. I'm pretty sure they've also said they have no plans for a GC III at the moment. They're working on a new fantasy 4x (referred to as the not-MoM since it's yet unnamed) and some sort of MMO (Societies).

I don't see why they'd go Sins style? They already have Sins for that.

I have to disagree with you on the multiplayer, though. I actually bought GC2 and it's first expansion to support Stardock, but I can't say I've played more than 20 minutes of it. It's not that I don't think it's a great game, it probably is, but gaming is a social thing for me. If I can't play with my friends, it doesn't hold much appeal to me. But that's alright, not every game can be targetted at my demographic

Sadly I'm one of the people who plays almost exclusively multiplayer, but I play on a LAN with friends, not matching with people online. I'm sadly the forever hidden demographic

Thing is though, if you have a computer player that is playing closer and closer to how a human player would play, with the advantage that he'll never get tired of playing, or tired of not playing, and won't disconnect in a hissy fit when he sees that he's losing, then that's pure win.

What I would like to see in GC3 is an AI that adapts to a particular human player's strategies (the one who's playing) and in some cases, adopts them if they're so effective.

So they're not going to spam the chat box with distracting comments while you're taking your turn, that's no huge loss.

But maybe the next AI will, that's if it seems to be an effective strategy